Russian's Links to Iran Offer a Case Study in Arms Leaks

By PATRICK E. TYLER

Published: May 10, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, May 4—
One of Russia's leading missile scientists, Yuri P. Savelyev, was always more than willing to teach advanced rocket-building to Iranian engineers, who are said to be working on missiles that could reach most Middle Eastern capitals, and even Alaska.

When Russian government officials tried to stop him four years ago because Russia had signed an international agreement to control the spread of ballistic missile technology, Mr. Savelyev persisted.

As the rector of the famous Baltic State Technical University, he developed a program to teach students from a leading Iranian university courses in advanced physics, metallurgy and the behavior of gases and fluids under high pressure and temperature -- all disciplines essential to building rockets.

That was done, he said, with the full knowledge of the Russian Defense Ministry and the national intelligence agency, known as the Federal Security Service, of which Mr. Savelyev's deputy is a member.

Then last February, after complaints from the Clinton administration, Mr. Savelyev was ordered to shut down the program. He was summoned to Moscow by the Ministry of Education, where he was reprimanded and threatened with dismissal for concealing the educational program that was under way both here and in Iran.

''I really have big problems,'' he said, seated near a display cabinet where he keeps a portrait of Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. ''I now have as my antagonists the Russian government and the American government and I think one way or the other, they will find a way to fire me from the post of rector.''

As concerns mount in the United States and Israel that Iran's secretive missile and nuclear weapons programs could pose new threats in the region, the case of Mr. Savelyev illustrates the behind-the-scenes cooperation between the Russian and American governments to stem the flow of missile technologies to Iran. But at the same time, it also reveals the deep-seated resistance within the Russian military and security establishment against abandoning Russia's ''strategic'' role in cultivating clients and lucrative contracts for transferring military science and technology.

''I would tell you honestly that I wanted to work with them,'' Mr. Savelyev said of his Iranian contacts, ''and I would be teaching Iranians rocket technology today if I could because otherwise I would have my professors going to the market to sell fruits and vegetables to earn a living.''

In a lengthy interview, Mr. Savelyev defended his activities, saying he was unfairly disciplined because of his hard-line nationalistic views and because he has become a vocal critic of President Vladimir V. Putin's cooperation with the United States on arms control initiatives. Mr. Savelyev contends that such cooperation will weaken Russia's own rocket forces and will alienate Iran.

''I believe there is nothing more important than having Iran as our ally,'' he said, ''because if we fell into a state of animosity with Iran, the whole of Central Asia could be lost to the influence of the Islamic world.'' He also argues that if Russia does not help Iran build medium range ballistic missiles, ''North Korea and China are ready to offer Iran help with new rocket programs.''

Last month in Washington, the State Department spokesman, James P. Rubin, singled out Mr. Savelyev as a threat to United States security interests. In announcing that the United States was lifting sanctions on several Russian organizations suspected of providing assistance to Iran's ballistic missile program, including Baltic State, Mr. Rubin said a ban on all contact or educational exchanges with Mr. Savelyev ''personally'' would remain in force.

''The rector is believed to have violated Russian export controls and attempted to export goods or services that could contribute to missiles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction,'' Mr. Rubin said.

Mr. Savelyev denied that characterization, saying he never transferred more than a good education in basic science. ''Can Newton's law of gravity be taught to Iranian students?'' he asked with a defiant tone. ''Because if you don't know the laws of gravity, you cannot build rockets.''

Today, Mr. Savelyev, 62, is still rector at Baltic State, one of Russia's most prestigious scientific centers. ''I have been a rocket builder all my life,'' he said, ''and many of the leading Russian rocket builders have graduated from this university,'' whose laboratories were shrouded in secrecy until 1991 and, even today, remain off limits to foreigners.

One of the most famous graduates of Baltic State was the late Vladimir F. Utkin, who designed Russia's most fearsome land-based strategic rocket, the SS-18 ''Satan,'' whose payload of 10 independently targetable warheads spawned fears in the West that Moscow would mount a pre-emptive nuclear strike to wipe out American missile fields and then try to force an American surrender or ride out a nuclear war.

Mr. Savelyev's relationship with Iran began in mid-1996, when he received a telephone call from an Iranian diplomat in Moscow to discuss an educational proposal. ''I can say that at that time, they were more concerned with preparing specialists in rocket construction'' than any general education, he said.

Days later Mr. Savelyev greeted an Iranian delegation here that included two rocket experts from Iran's Ministry of Defense, as well as an Iranian intelligence officer.